Handwriting
by The Green Archer
Summary: The prince picks up a quill for the first time in over ten years. One-shot.


It was the one thing he liked least about being human again: handwriting.

Even before the spell, it had never been his forte. He'd taken lessons of course but he'd never been a great student. Many of his early memories of learning to write involved him throwing inkwells at the wall and scattering parchment across the floor of his father's study. Sometimes he wondered how his tutors had put up with him as long as they did.

As a Beast, writing for him was out of the question. His paws were too big to hold a quill, let alone write with one. In the end LaPlume and Crane both took it upon themselves to compose letters to the distant kingdoms while he dictated. One thing about being a Beast surrounded by enchanted objects, they were very good at making themselves useful when they needed to be.

But ten years later things were different. The servants weren't objects anymore, and while he knew they would do anything for him the Prince was twenty-one years old now, and had certain responsibilities to take on. There was no escaping it, he had to learn how to write - again.

Thankfully he had an amazing tutor to help him this time. Belle had taught him how to read during those long winter months they'd spent together in the castle and now she was taking it up on herself to teach (or rather, re-teach) him how to write.

Like everything else about her, Belle's handwriting was beautiful and elegant. She used up several sheets of parchment showing him how to write out the capital and lowercase letters all with the warm patience of a school teacher teaching a child their ABCs. But when it came to taking the quill from her, the Prince's handwriting looked like chicken scratch - no worse than chicken scratch, like dark inky blotches. His hand kept on shaking, no matter how hard he tried to copy out her beautiful letters.

"You're being too hard on yourself," she told him over and over.

"Easy for you to say," he replied. She wasn't the one entertaining visitors in a week's time expecting a speech explaining his absence from the throne. If he couldn't manage to write out a single word legibly, how on earth could he possibly manage all _this?_ Things he'd never expected to weigh him down so much two weeks ago as a beast suddenly became apparent, and sometimes all he needed the comfort of Belle's hand on his shoulder and a kiss on his cheek to remember that what he was working for was better than what he had left behind.

A few days soon became a week. Belle suggested they go for a walk in the grounds to enjoy the spring weather, but the Prince was so determined to practice his calligraphy, he wouldn't listen. Instead they grew into a regular routine where she would sit across from him at the desk reading from her book while he wrote, Belle occasional stopping to see if he'd made on progress. On Tuesday she found herself squinting her eyes heavily as she read the lines he had tried to copy out from his history textbook.

_"The treaty of, of, of..."_

"Oh, just forget it!" he growled as he crumpled up the sheet and tossed it behind the desk. "It's hopeless."

"It's not hopeless. Why do you keep saying that?" she said. "Here, let's try something else." She shifted a few pieces of parchment on the table, looking for a blank page they could start over on when a strange design on one of the rolls caught her eye. "What's that?" she asked him.

"Oh," the Prince looked embarrassed. "It's a bird."

"A bird?" Belle repeated. "Why were you drawing a bird?"

"I get bored when Cogsworth tutors me sometimes," he explained, "I saw a bird on the window and started drawing it."

Belle gave the Prince a reprimanding look and then studied the detail of the wings and the head. It wasn't an _amazing_ drawing by any means, but it was pretty impressive for what it was worth. "This is actually pretty good," she told him. "Draw something else for me."

The Prince was confused by her request, but complied, drawing a branch underneath the bird to look like he was perched there.

"You drew that with your left hand?" she said.

The Prince looked up, realizing that the hand he was holding his quill in now was not the same quill he had been writing with a moment before. "I guess I did," he said in surprise.

Belle scratched the bottom of her chin thoughtfully. "I have an idea," she said. "Can you pass me the quill for a moment?"

"Of course."

Belle took the quill from him and wrote the word 'bird' underneath the drawing.

"Write that for me," she told him.

The Prince looked at her and obeyed, copying out the word with his right hand. It looked terrible, but for once Belle did not correct him.

"Now write it with your other hand," she instructed.

Again, he switched hands and wrote out the word again. The result was surprising. Belle's handwriting still looked a lot nicer than his that was for sure, but the word was actually _legible_ this time!

"Belle," he said in disbelief. "Look!"

Belle smiled. "Did your old tutor ever make you try writing with your left hand?"

"No. It was always the right hand."

"Well, I can't say for certain, but I think you might be left-handed."

"_Left-handed?"_ he repeated._ "_Is that a bad thing?"

"Of course not!" she shook her head. "Why Papa is left-handed, he's been one all his life."

"Oh," he said. "Well maybe that's why...,"

"Why what?"

"Why I was such a bad student when I was younger." He paused. "Could you pass me another piece of parchment?"

"Sure."

He dipped his quill in the inkwell and wrote out a sentence on the new sheet, noticing that his hand wasn't shaking anymore. In fact it was a lot easier for him to push down on the paper now that he was using his left hand. When he'd used his right hand he would often break the nib of the quill from pressing down too hard, but it wasn't like that now.

_"Two households, both alike in dignity in fair Verona where we lay our scene," _Belle read out after him. "That's from Romeo and Juliet. You memorized that?"

"How can I forget it? It was the first thing I ever read to you."

Belle smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "You're sweet."

The Prince glowed at her compliment. "I think I would like to go outside now," he said as he put down the quill.

Belle nodded. "I think I would like that too."

As he closed the door behind them the Prince felt relieved that he had been able to master at least one thing to relearn since becoming human again. Maybe this would explain why he was having so much trouble holding his cutlery properly, or why he always preferred to hammer with his left hand when he was doing repairs on the roof as a Beast.

But on the other hand, he realized this also meant he might have to sit next to Belle's father tonight at dinner. He was the only other other left-handed person in the castle after all.

Maurice. They hadn't exactly made up about the dungeon incident yet. This was going to be an awkward night for both of them.

* * *

_This is just a fun little headcanon idea I came up with about a year ago about of the possibility of the Beast being left-handed. I am NOT left-handed, however two people in my family are and I'm slightly attracted to the idea of the Beast still being slightly 'different' from everyone else even after he becomes human again. I am aware that the Beast holds a spoon with his right hand in both times when he's eating dinner in the movie, but in my defense sometimes people's dominant hands can change depending on the activity they're doing. For example, even though I'm right-handed I can write on chalkboards with my left hand and can also use eating utensils with my left hand. Also, I just like the idea of Maurice and the Prince bonding over the fact that they use the same dominant hand, as strange as that is to bond over (I don't know whether Maurice is left-handed either, I just took some creative licensing for the sake of the story). _

_I originally uploaded this to the site in January, then deciding that it was more of a headcanon idea than an actual story decided to move it to deviantArt, then moved it back here because I'm silly. I will not be continuing it as it was just something I wrote for fun and is not as well-written as some of my other stories here._


End file.
